Plans for Sellafield nuclear power station move step closer as Toshiba takes 60 per cent stake in £10bn project

Plans to build Europe’s largest nuclear power station at Sellafield in Cumbria moved a step closer yesterday after Toshiba took a 60 per cent stake in the £10bn project.

The Moorside plant, due to open in 2024, will have three reactors and be capable of powering 6m homes – or the equivalent of 7 per cent of Britain’s electricity needs.

The work could create up to 21,000 UK jobs, and the project is owned by NuGen, a consortium that also includes French giant GDF Suez.

Energy minister Michael Fallon said: ‘The Moorside new nuclear project will bring at least £10bn of investment and is expected to create up to 21,000 jobs, while also providing a reliable source of low carbon energy for over 6m homes.

‘This announcement is a significant step towards new reactors likely to come online in 2024 and shows how attractive the UK is for investors.’

Britain faces an energy crunch as older power plants, especially coal stations, are shut down by the Government in order to meet EU climate change targets.

But plans to build new stations are currently years behind schedule. There are currently three groups hoping to build nuclear stations in Britain. As well as Toshiba, French state-backed EDF is building a station at Hinkley Point in Somerset, while Japanese giant Hitachi is building two plants – on Anglesey and in Gloucestershire.

But even these have run into bureaucratic roadblocks, with EDF’s £16bn scheme being probed by EU regulators.

The Horizon project, now owned by Hitachi, was almost scrapped after German owners Eon and Npower-parent RWE decided to pull out of the project. The NuGen consortium originally included SSE and the owners of ScottishPower, Iberdrola. But SSE pulled out of the project after getting cold feet, while Iberdrola sold its stake to Toshiba last year.